On-going
series: Crisis in the Caucasus - 2008
The Russian / Georgian Conflict and Its Impact on AzerbaijanWindow on Eurasia: Original
Blog Article

Vienna, September 10 ­ Satellite photographs analyzed
by United Nations experts show that only five percent of Tskhinvali
was destroyed during the fighting there but that 50 percent of
ethnic Georgian villages were destroyed in that region by Ossetian
marauders behind Russian lines, a pattern that undercuts Moscow's
claims about what took place.

These pictures and the analysis
conducted by the independent experts at UNOSAT show, Human Rights
Watch told "Novaya gazeta," that Ossetian units "burned
and robbed Georgian villages," as HRW people on the ground
had reported in the face of Ossetian and Russian claims to the
contrary.

But these photographs taken
over the course of August also call into question repeated Russian
claims that the Georgian army had destroyed much of the South
Ossetian capital ­ the satellite photographs show only five
percent of its buildings having been damaged - and that Georgian
forces had carried out a systematic genocide there.

The photographs are extremely
disturbing because, in the words of Human Rights Watch (HRW)
experts, they demonstrate that "Georgian villages have,
in fact, ceased to exist on the territory of South Ossetia."
But the human rights group's own observers point out that now
there is evidence that similar "marauder activities are
continuing in Georgian villages in the buffer zone."

"It is possible,"
"Novaya Gazeta" concludes, "that the materials
collected by Human Rights Watch [and the UNOSAT photographs]
will become part of the case about military crimes at the time
of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, which will be considered by
the International Criminal Court in The Hague."

Such use of satellite photography
to document the actions of various participants in conflicts
is spreading: A year ago, for example, Azerbaijan used satellite
photography to show the destruction of certain cultural monuments
that has taken place in portions of that country now under Armenian
occupation.

One reason for this is the dramatic
improvement in satellite photography technology in recent years,
but another and more important factor is that such photographs
not only provide the kind of objective proof that observer reports
sometimes lack but also have a far greater impact on those who
see them.

And because this technology
will make it more difficult for officials to lie about what is
happening or to cover up their own crimes, one can hope that
the very possibility that satellite photographs will be taken
and shared will over time act to restrain those who might otherwise
engage in crimes of war and crimes against humanity.

Unfortunately, as these UNOSAT
photographs show, neither Russian forces nor the irregular Ossetian
units behind their lines included that possibility in their calculations.
And as a result, an enormous humanitarian disaster ensued, one
that is not only not over but not yet being blamed on its real
authors.